Real Estate Matters | The most important questions to ask when you are a landlord renting out a property

Juliet Risdon

Juliet Risdon is a Director of JML Property and a property investor.
Having established the company in 1994, JML Property offers Investment Property & Homes. It specializes in managing properties for owners and investors, and providing attractive and comfortable homes for tenants.

If you have not seen the earlier articles on this subject, here is a brief introduction to the series. Of course you can find the articles online on the Macau Daily Times website.
Renting out a property can be both stressful and risky, especially if you are unfortunate enough to encounter a bad tenant.
The trouble is, even though you own the property you are also very busy during the day and want to minimize the issues with this and any other apartment.
If you are looking for an agency to lease out your property and a property administrator to take care of it whilst it rented, it is important to do your homework and look for an established and professional company with strong systems.
The list below is in no particular order, and is intended as a starting point to help identify which questions to ask. In this final installment we look at questions 16-20

Is the tenant legally entitled to stay / work in Macau?
You want to know if the tenant has legal status in Macau. In other words, do they have the right to live here, work here or both ? If the answer is neither, you could face prosecution for leasing to an illegal immigrant.
You may find that that such people are willing to pay a premium to lease the apartment, and this should be a red flag.
In the most extreme cases, property in Macau has been used in connection with prostitution and human trafficking, neither of which you would want to be associated with and both of which may send you to jail without passing ‘go’ !

Has the tenant been informed that they cannot sub let or advertise the property in any way?
The Tenancy Agreement may state clearly that the property cannot be sub-leased, or it may not state anything directly related to this point.
If a tenant wants to sub-lease part or all of their property, they must have written permission from the owner. This can be stated in the Tenancy Agreement or in a separate statement.

Has the tenant been informed on our rules regarding pets?
Many landlords do not allow pets, mainly because of the potential damage they can cause to an apartment and of course the difficulty of returning the apartment to the owner in the same condition it was received.
If you want to allow pets, it is better to state this in the agreement so that there are no misunderstandings.
In such circumstances, you might also want to put a clause in the agreement that they pay for a deep clean of the apartment when the tenant leaves.

How Many People Will Be Living In The Property ?
With the lack of space in Macau, it is not uncommon for workers to share accommodation.
Whilst there is nothing wrong with this is principle if the landlord is informed, you want to avoid the property being used as a ‘dormitory’.
We recently purchased a 600 sq ft apartment housing more than 10 people. It will make a nice home for a professional couple, but not for 5 x professional couples !

Who will deal with the lease renewal when the initial tenancy agreement ends?
The lease renewal must be tracked and handled professionally, or it will cost you money.
If a property administration company is not handling this, you will want to set up a reminder when the lease is set to expire in 6 months. At this point you should contact the tenant and ask about their intentions to either stay or leave the apartment.
If the tenant is going to stay, there are two choices, you can either renew the existing lease or create a new one;

That concludes this article on being a landlord; Next week: The most important questions you can ask when selling your property.

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